


Storms and Survival

by InklingDancer



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-01-31 16:27:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12685725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InklingDancer/pseuds/InklingDancer
Summary: When a shipwrecked Shiro and Matt are taken in by the pirate ship The Galra, a quick lie drags them into a dangerous life as part of the crew. What will happen when Shiro starts falling for the menacing pirate captain, Jacob Sendak, while still lying to him?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is it! Here is my contribution to the [Shiro Big Bang 2017!](http://voltronbigbang.tumblr.com)  
> I've had so much fun working on this event and I've learned so much.  
> Thank you to our wonderful mods, especially Queenie, who've worked so hard to bring us this event.
> 
> Thank you so much to my wonderful betas, @InterdictedInk, @c0cunt, @mikealicious, and @not_the_Alex_youre_looking_for.  
> I couldn't have done it without you!  
> And special thanks to my dearest @moonlovingvampire for your unending support.

“Matt! Matt? Matt where are you?” 

Kicking his legs to keep his head above the water, Shiro flailed around trying to spot his friend. Finally, lightning broke across the sky and he saw Matt's head bobbing over the surface of the water. 

“Matt!” 

He swam over, mostly using his left arm, because his right arm hurt too much. He didn't have time to think about that; he had to get to Matt. A thunderclap broke overhead. Finally, he made it over and found that Matt was still conscious, but struggling to stay afloat in the choppy water. 

“Takashi, I don’t know how much longer I can do this.” 

“Just keep going; I've got you.” He tried to support Matt with his left arm, but that left only his legs to tread water. Matt spotted a piece of wood from their ship, and they swam over to it and rested on it. 

“Here, give me your right arm. We've got to keep it above the water so it doesn't lose blood as fast.” Matt took Shiro's arm and lay it over his shoulders. Shiro grimaced, but didn't complain. 

As the storm began to break, Matt spotted land. “Oh finally,” he sighed, too exhausted to cheer. Angling himself and Shiro - who had passed out from his injury a little while ago - towards where he'd spotted the coastline, Matt kicked his way to shore.

Shiro’s arm was all torn up; he was surprised it had taken his friend so long to pass out from the pain and blood loss. But Shiro had insisted, however weakly, that he needed to help keep them afloat.

~ ~ ~ 

When Shiro came to, the storm had died out. Matt shook his left shoulder, careful of the injury that he had been keeping pressure on. “Takashi, there’s a ship!”

“Oh thank goodness,” Shiro managed, before falling silent again.

“Come on, Takashi, stay with me. We're gonna get rescued!”

But it seemed rescue was not in their cards, for it was a pirate ship who docked in the harbour. Matt could do nothing but watch them disembark - he couldn't leave Shiro behind. 

“Hey, there's someone already here!” one of the pirates in the first boat called. 

The pirates swarmed around the young men, and Matt slowly lifted his hands to show he wasn't aggressive. 

“We were shipwrecked. My friend here is injured. Can anyone on your ship help him?”

Mocking laughs rang out from the circle. 

“Your friend here looks dead already,” one of the pirates cackled. 

Then Matt was being lifted into the air.

“Hey! Hey!” He struggled against the grip of the two burly pirates clamped onto his arms. “Be careful with him!” he shouted to the pirate who was prodding at Shiro, who was still laying, unmoving, on his back.  
“Please, he’s hurt…” When the pirate by Shiro ignored him, Matt tried to plead with the ones holding him, but they just ignored him in favor of acknowledging the man who was walking up to them, staring at Matt. 

“Sir.” 

“Captain.”

The captain ignored them and held eye contact with Matt. 

“Yes, young sailor, your friend is hurt. Very badly, as well. However, I don't have room on my ship for two castaways who aren't going to add anything to my crew.” He looked Matt up and down critically, as if judging Matt’s physique and finding his frame lacking. Which, fair, after all, he was no sailor. 

“I’m a linguist, captain...?"

“Sendak.” 

“Captain Sendak. I can speak a bunch of different languages and my speciality is the spanish and creole of the Caribbean. My friend over there is-” he hesitated. The truthful answer was, of course, that Shiro was just a common sailor with an injured arm. But this captain Sendak seemed more than happy to just leave Shiro, or even both of them behind if they didn't prove their use. “He’s our cartographer, sir.” 

He knew he’d struck gold when he saw the glimmer of interest in the pirate captain’s eye. 

The captain looked Matt over once again, then barked at his men, “Grab that one carefully; he is to survive, you hear me?”

The pirates moving Shiro obeyed, their movements gentler now. Matt relaxed a bit upon seeing that.

“Now, let's get you two on board and we'll continue this discussion.…”


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Shiro noticed when he woke up was that he was somewhere unfamiliar. Why wasn't he below deck on the _Persephone_? Then it came flooding back through him, his memories: the storm, the ship sinking, Matt helping him to shore, the beach. Wait, but this wasn't the beach, either, so where was Matt? He reached down to push himself up into a sitting position- and his right arm never touched.  
“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh…” He was definitely hyperventilating a bit. “What the hell happened to my- Oh. Oh. That’s right….”

The last couple of memories filtered through his pain and sleep fogged mind: someone carrying him from the beach to somewhere he thought he was going to get to rest, only to be brought to full wakefulness by excruciating pain. He looked down at what remained of his bicep. 

“I can't believe I forgot that they chopped my arm off. I can’t believe they actually _chopped my arm off_.”

“Technically, it was more _sawing_ than chopping, but yeah. It’s gone,” Matt said from the corner, drawing Shiro’s attention for the first time. 

“Matt!” Shiro tried to sit up straighter but Matt quickly jumped up and shushed him back down into bed. 

“Hey, hey, Shiro, you need to lay down. You literally just woke up from losing your arm. I need you to take it easy for a while.” 

While the first bit was said in a firm and commanding tone, after he finished speaking, Matt was still fidgeting. The longer Shiro looked at him, the more agitated he seemed to get.

“Matt, what aren’t you telling me?” It wasn't like his friend to keep things to himself. “Matt, you’re worrying me.”

Matt’s hands were still moving, but he at least looked at Shiro now, even if he looked away right after. “I, uh…” he began. He looked around to see if anyone was coming, and when he’d decided that the coast was clear, he cleared his throat and said, “I told them you’re a cartographer.”

Shiro stared at him. “You… you what?”

“It was the only way to make sure they’d try to save you!” Matt said, suddenly all up in Shiro’s space. “They had enough sailors, they said, that they weren’t going to waste time on someone who could do the same things but was injured and had a big chance of dying.” A sob tore its way up out of Matt’s throat. “I couldn’t let them leave you behind to bleed out. I couldn't lose you too, Shiro.” 

“Too? Oh, no, Sam didn't make it, did he?” 

Matt couldn't do more than shake his head, he was crying so hard. Shiro reached to pat him to try and give him some comfort - then switched arms when no limb came with the movement he had been trying to make. 

“And so you thought that telling them I'm a cartographer was going to keep them from leaving me on the beach to die? ...Okay actually when I say it like that you make an excellent point. But Matt,” Shiro said, before his friend could get too proud of his plan. “Once they figure it out, then we’re both dead. You should have just let-”

“But they’re not going to find out. I figured it out. You just speak Japanese to me, I’ll draw and then boom, map.”

“That- what?” Shiro’s eyebrows raised higher still. “I think you’ve lost me.”

“We just pretend that you don’t know any of the vocabulary for cartography in English, only in Japanese, and since I'm the only other one who speaks any Japanese-”

“-That we know of.” Shiro held up his remaining hand as he cut him off. “Any of these pirates could speak it.”

“Oh. There is that.” Matt frowned, but then his face lit up again. “Okay, new, better plan. Obviously you can't draw anymore-”

“Matt, I never could draw,” Shiro drawled.

“-But I can still draw, so instead of the arguably complicated translation idea, which only works if none of these guys speak Japanese, I’ll just teach you.” 

“You’ll teach me to draw? With my left hand?” Matt would have to forgive Shiro his skepticism; Shiro had taught himself to use his left hand pretty well, but he was by no stretch of the imagination left handed. Well. he would have to be, now. But he was still no artist.

“No no no. I’ll teach you everything I remember Dad telling me about cartography-” He had to squeeze his eyes shut to block out the tears trying to well up again as he thought of his father. “And then when you need to draw a map, you’ll know the terminology well enough that you can direct what I’m doing as I draw, and not seem like you’re a total novice.”

“Which I am,” Shiro reminded him a third time. “Okay, fine, say your plan works. We still have to get out of here. Next port we stop at, we’re finding a ship back to London. We just need to stay long enough for my stitches to heal, and if I learn how to use my left hand for everything, that'll be a bonus for trying to find work. Either way, it’ll be safer if we’re not on a ship full of pirates who will all kill us for lying to them.” 

He didn’t mention to Matt that his plan was probably going to fail, if only because Shiro was a terrible actor. He’d do this, though, because he wasn't going to let Matt get killed just because Shiro wasn't a convincing liar. He’d be damned if he let Matt die for trying to save Shiro’s life. That just wasn't happening. 

He also didn't mention to Matt that Shiro’s own plan for when - if - they managed to make it off this ship alive, would involve only Matt going back to London, because the odds of anyone hiring Shiro onto a ship, when there were plenty of two-armed young men looking for work? Abysmal. 

Maybe they could have that conversation later, but for right now, Shiro needed to learn everything he could to make sure he kept Matt alive long enough to even warrant thinking about that conversation.

Just then, the person who did the amputation entered the cabin. He introduced himself simply as Ulaz, the ship’s surgeon. Ulaz checked Shiro over and after a few minutes, pronounced his verdict. 

“Yes, you will be fine if you rest up and take it easy for a couple of days. Since the shock has not killed you yet, I do not believe it will now.” Once Shiro nodded and he and Matt thanked Ulaz, the surgeon took his leave. “Rest, now. You will not do it any good by opening up the wound.”

~~~

The next visitor was Captain Sendak himself.

“I wanted to come and meet the young man who has been staying in my cabin since last night. Your friend has been keeping close watch on you...." His tone, at least, seemed approving enough. Until he added the next part: "And my quartermaster has been keeping an eye on both of you for me.”

He didn't give them time to be unsettled by this fact, instead addressing Shiro again. “I'd like to see how you are with your left hand.” He tossed something - which turned out to be a tied up piece of rope - at Shiro, who fumbled and just barely missed catching it with his left hand. 

“Well, at least you’re not terrible,” Sendak said, clearly underwhelmed by the outcome. “Toss it back.” Shiro complied, lobbing it underhand back to the captain, who caught it easily. “Good. At least you have good aim with your remaining limb. Tell me, was the amputated one your dominant hand?”

“Yes sir,” Shiro replied, though he was surprised the captain didn't already know this somehow.

“Well then your catch was pretty good. Don’t be disheartened. It’s not like you were expected to be good at it; you are a cartographer, after all. You academic types..." He looked between Shiro and Matt. “...do seem to have the short end of the stick when it comes to physical prowess.” 

Turning abruptly, the captain left. And although Shiro had a million and one other things to think about - not least of which the revelation that he needed tumblr secretly learn cartography - he gave himself a few moments to track the sight of that powerful ass as it walked out the door. 

He told himself it was just because he hadn’t had any kind of sex in several months - since the night before they left port for the exploratory expedition. 

Matt knew better, however; he could see it in Shiro’s eyes - his friend was attracted to the captain. The six-foot-seven and half as wide, metal-armed, eyepatch-wearing, deadly pirate captain. 

Well damn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to @moonlovingvampire for her help on this chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So obviously, my posting schedule totally went off the rails. This chapter kicked my butt when I was editing it, which pushed me right into exams and now I'm moving! But here is new content! *jazz hands*

It took a week for the stitches to mostly heal and Shiro pronounced fit to be moved to a hammock below decks. It was another week before the redness and swelling has gone down enough for Ulaz to clear him to leave his hammock for more than using the bucket on deck. He actually threatened to take Shiro's other arm if he didn't stop trying to walk about on deck before he had recovered.

During Shiro's boring recovery waiting for his arm to heal enough to really move around again, Shiro got to know Sendak a bit better. He learned that the captain had once been in the merchant marines, before he became a pirate. 

They discussed the ship's heading and next destination, Shiro drawing on the notes that Matt was giving him every night, when they huddled in a corner of the belowdecks area, whispering back and forth about cartographic terms and how ship's courses were plotted. 

 

~~~

 

Once Shiro had finally recovered enough, they gave him a hook, fitted to the stump on his right bicep. It fastened on with a harness that went around his left arm like half a vest. 

Outfitted with his new accessory, Shiro went on deck and found Matt scrubbing the rail.

“Today’s the day you get to start doing stuff again!” his friend crowed when he spotted him.

“Great,” Shiro said, too worried about how this was going to go to be excited at getting to be useful again.

“Too bad you can't be doing the one thing - or rather, _person_ \- I know you want to be doing,” Matt teased, waggling his eyebrows at Shiro. 

“Totally,” Shiro deadpanned, trying to act like the captain's daily visits weren't one of the things that had been keeping him motivated during his boring recovery. ...Along with Matt, of course. 

“Shove off, Matt. It’s not like that. He’s just….”

“Really hot?” Matt interrupted. “Incredibly dangerous in a sexy way? Big and strong enough to fulfill your-”

“Hello Captain Sendak sir!” Shiro yelped, trying to put his left hand over his friends mouth. 

Matt’s eyes widened as he spun around and spotted the man in question. “Captain Sendak, sir, I was just….” He looked at Shiro, his expression frantic as he pleaded silently for an out.

Fortunately, Shiro was happy to give one. “What can we do for you, sir?”

“Well, Shirogane, you’ve been cleared to start working on the ship,“ the captain informed him. “Now it’s time you start learning how to handle ropes as well as your maps.”

Of course, Shiro actually had to _re_ learn how to handle ropes and climb rigging, but the captain couldn’t have known that. And even though the one overseeing most of his progress in “learning” these skills, Shiro did not need to pretend to struggle with the tasks when he did them left-handed. 

Understanding Shiro’s struggle, Captain Sendak took him aside one day. 

“You know, I haven’t always had this arm,” he says, holding up his metal left arm. “I used to just have a stump there. The angle made it so that I couldn’t even use a hook like yours. And I know it’s been a while since then, but I do remember enough of the recovery to help you out with yours.”

Which is exactly what Sendak did, and Shiro found himself growing closer to the captain with each day.

 

~~~

 

When Shiro wasn’t busy learning how to use his new limb, Matt taught him the intricacies of longitude and latitude, measuring the distance of land and sea, and how to transcribe them onto paper. Yet somehow in the midst of Matt's teachings he still found time to bug Shiro about his day.

“I mean, it's very inconvenient, but it's not all bad. For example, today Sendak was showing me how to shoot a pistol with my left hand and use the hook for balance when I have time, in order to steady the shot.”

_Sendak gently steered Shiro’s arm into place, even though his voice was gruff. Shiro made a good shot and Sendak squeezed his left shoulder affectionately. Shiro felt the warmth spread down his body from where his large hand had clasped him. He grinned at Sendak, encouraged to see his own pride reflected in the captain’s face…._

“Today Haxus showed me how to tie knots with my left hand and the hook. It’s actually pretty handy for knot tying, because I can loop rope around it as I’m tying, and because of the tapered end I can even slide the rope down it and off the tip for even tighter and more precise knots. I can see why this is the default shape for replacement hands for sailors.”

_His legs were shaking from the strain, and his left arm was very much feeling the pressure of holding him up. The hook on his right bicep was very useful in combination with the harness he’d been given, but couldn’t hold all his weight. But it held a great deal, and it was enough to let him haul his legs to the next footholds, and his left hand to the rung two rows up._  
“Keep going, newbie; you’re doing great!” Haxus shouted up. The same basic refrain Shiro had been hearing all afternoon. But now a new voice joined his.   
“Good job, Shirogane! Remember to keep your hook hand closer to your body; it doesn’t have the same reach as your natural hand and you’ve got to learn that.”  
It was Sendak; Shiro could tell by his booming gruff voice. He adjusted his grip and moved up the rigging to the top.   
“Alright, come on down Shirogane; you’ve done well.” 

So far, Captain Sendak hadn't picked up on Shiro's lack of expertise, something that Shiro gave Matt all the credit for. But when he told that to his friend, Matt waved him off.

“Yes, but Shiro, you're the one who learned all of this stuff. You should be proud of that.”

And he was. As the weeks passed, Shiro found himself succeeding in the various things he had been learning, and yes, much of that was thanks to the captain, and to Matt. But _he_ was the one who had accomplished these new and relearned skills, and that felt pretty damn good. He was truly a part of the crew now.

 

~~~

 

Shiro watched as Sendak lifts a coil of rope over his head and handed it to Morvok, who was scrambling on the low beam. The muscles in his natural arm flexed and Shiro noticed himself tightening his own jaw in response. The relaxation he forced himself to breathe into himself was ruined when Matt came up behind him and startled him. 

“So... Sendak's pretty built, huh?”

“Ah!” Shiro cried, whirling around. “Matt, you scared me!”

Matt snickered and shoved at Shiro. “Haha I know, but your face was perfect. You went from love-struck to embarrassed in two ticks," he grinned.

"What makes you think I'm lovestruck and not simply daydreaming?"

Matt just gave him a look. 

"Daydreaming maybe, but lovestruck daydreaming in that case. Let us consider the evidence: you were standing over here, definitely _not_ doing your work, and instead you were, sending quite the lustful look the captain’s way, with your eyelids half closed and mouth hanging just a bit open like so,” he demonstrated.

Haxus happened to look over then, and caught the odd expression Matt was making. He leaned around Sendak to send the boy a confused look. This, in turn, prompted the captain to look over to see what exactly had caught his quartermaster’s attention. Shiro and Matt immediately dropped down behind the barrel that Shiro was supposed to be getting something from.

“Whoops,” Matt laughed, his face showing his total lack of apology. 

Shiro hit him with his good hand to shove him away. 

“You’re such an ass, Holt. Get out of here, before I inform Haxus that you’re slacking on your duties.” 

Not that he ever would, and they both knew it, but still, Matt got up and ambled back over to the other side of the deck where he was supposed to be doing something with the rigging or scrubbing the deck. As he left, he sent another significant look to Shiro, fluttering his eyes and tilting his head a bit in Sendak's direction.

Shiro just groaned and thumped his head against the barrel.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't abandoned this fic, but it is on an indefinite hiatus while I work some major revisions. Thank you for reading, and I hope you stick around.


End file.
